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Get your knowledge out of your inbox and on the web

In only a week, my answer is now #6 on Google

In his book, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan describes how people can become experts by sharing their answers on the web with more people. I believe librarians should be doing this as often as they can in order to showcase their expertise, and it’s something I try to do whenever practical.

Brogan describes the process as follows (pp. 25-26):

Receive a question requiring your expertise via email.

Respond with an email but put answer in a blog post as well.

The answer is out of your email and on the web for others to learn.

Repeat this process many times.

Your answers are now in Google.

Now you’re an expert on the web.

A week ago I received an email from a student looking for market share and brand share information of the energy and sports drink market. I recognized that this would likely be a question others were interested in, so rather than simply replying via email, I put the answer on my Business Blog and sent him the link. He replied back a few hours later with his appreciation (which rarely happens, btw).

In a week’s time, my answer to the one patron has been viewed 103 times and currently sits as the #6 Google search result for “energy drink market share” and #7 result for “sports drink market share.” While all of the resources listed in my answer are from subscription databases (it’s impossible to get a good data on this topic without them) I do suggest that non-OHIO patrons check with their local libraries. Hopefully my post will send other libraries some business while also demonstrating librarian expertise and the value of libraries.